Beat

I cover all sorts of things: sports, social issues, illustrations for news and nature stories.

One Shot

1 Jun 2011. PODVRH, Slovenia. REUTERS/Srdjan Zivulovic

Medo, a brown bear cub, plays near a tree in the village of Podvrh, central Slovenia.

“I like this picture because there is something humorous about it and it looks like the bear cub is smiling. But at the same time it's part of a sad story: the cub was separated from its mother and a Slovenian family adopted it, but they eventually had to give it up and send it to a sanctuary in Romania. Who knows what happened to this little bear in the end.”

Profile

My father bought me my first camera as a Christmas present in 1970. At that time, I really liked motorbike racing, and I would take pictures of motorcycles wherever I saw them. It was later on, in secondary school when I was about 16, that I started to learn about photojournalism.

I started out by teaching myself how to photograph, and later I carried on learning through photography classes at secondary school. I was amazed by the work of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado and he became a real inspiration. Much later, when I was about 30, I met him in Frankfurt. It was a wow moment.

I was working as a photographer for Delo, Slovenia’s biggest newspaper, when the country’s ten-day independence war broke out in 1991. As the story unfolded, I helped out some photographers from other news agencies by driving them through the barricades in my car, and among them was Reuters photographer Petar Kujundzic. After that, a professional dream came true for me: Petar suggested to the regional chief photographer that he should hire me, and ever since then, I’ve been working with Reuters.

Every assignment has something special in it. I can enjoy shooting a story, whether it’s just one picture, or a project that lasts for days.

I like nature photography and local assignments that show something positive. When I take these kinds of pictures, I’m thinking of ordinary people who love the natural world and are interested in good local stories about ordinary and extraordinary individuals. In this fast and furious world, it seems to me that we need a little easy thinking.

My biggest lesson has been finding out that nothing is impossible. That’s not to say things aren’t difficult though. Sometimes, for example, getting information through corporate information desks can be a real challenge. But even if something feels impossible, we keep trying.

Professionally, I really respect the Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt, I’d love to meet him someday. More generally, I respect my 92-year-old mother-in-law for her happy and cheerful outlook on life.

Behind the Scenes

5 Jun 2013. Ljubljana, Slovenia. Jure Makovec

Reuters photographer Srdjan Zivulovic waits for the arrival of former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, outside the court where Jansa was sentenced to two years in jail for bribery in a 2006 deal with Finnish defence group Patria.